Reverberations from George Zimmerman’s acquittal in a Florida courtroom for the slaying of Trayvon Martin continue to be felt around the nation. Rapper Jay Z recently admitted during an interview that he didn’t sleep for two days after the verdict, stating, “Didn’t Trayvon have the right to stand his ground? He was being chased, and he fought back.”

For music legend Stevie Wonder, the verdict was enough for him to announce a statewide boycott of Florida, which he announced onstage during a concert in Quebec, Canada.

“Until the Stand Your Ground law is abolished in Florida, I will never perform there again,’ Wonder proclaimed during the emotional statement. “Wherever I find that law exists, I will not perform in that state or in that part of the world.”

Rocker and right-wing extremist Ted Nugent took particular umbrage to Wonder’s proclamation, lashing out at the soul music icon during a radio interview, calling him “brain-dead” and “soulless” for his Florida boycott, throwing around erroneous claims about black-on-black crime in the city of Chicago.

“So 700 black people, mostly young children and young people were slaughtered in Chicago last year by black people, and not a peep out of Stevie Wonder,” Nugent ranted. “Are you kidding me? What is this, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest? How brain-dead do you have to be? How strangled by denial, how dishonest, how cheap do you have to be to focus on a clearcut case where all the evidence, from the DOJ, from the FBI, from the entire army of investigative specialists in Florida determined that George Zimmerman acted in self-defense against a life-threatening attack by a hoodlum, dope-smoking Trayvon Martin?”

Chicago radio station K-Hits 104.3 points out that in actuality, the city saw 506 murders in 2012, and not all of them involving black victims or assailants.

“I will pray for Stevie Wonder and all these other numbnuts who think that Trayvon Martin’s life is more important than the tens of thousands of slaughtered blacks at the hands of blacks,” Nugent continued, adding, “How do you go from being one of the most soulful people in the world, to being absolutely soulless” in regards to Wonder’s position. Listen to Nugent’s full statement in the video below.

Stevie Wonder’s next U.S. concert appearance is set for September 28, when he’ll perform alongside Kings of Leon, Alicia Keys and John Mayer at New York City’s Central Park as part of the Global Citizen Festival, which aims to help encourage people to fight against extreme poverty, among other social issues.

Ted Nugent has a packed tour itinerary this summer, with shows scheduled for his hometown of Detroit (August 2), Boston (August 7) and Atlantic City (August 10), among many others around America.

Scott T. Sterling

Scott T. Sterling
Scott is the rock associate producer for Radio.com. He has previously worked at URB, The Daily Swarm and L.A. Times, where he covered nightlife and music. The Detroit native currently resides in Los Angeles, CA, where he is a...